Summary

This four-hour House hearing was incredibly long, but not particularly illuminating, except insofar as revealing the personal preoccupations of various individual congresspeople.

To recap the events of the day:

Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee, largely about their efforts to combat foreign interference in US elections.

The senate hearing was largely collegial, with both the tech executives and the lawmakers generally expressing their desire to work together to address coordinated attacks.

Google was represented by an empty chair, having declined to make Sundar Pichai or Larry Page available to testify. The company’s absence made it a convenient target for lawmakers, and given how cordial the questioning was, it did not look good that Google was unwilling to show up.

The Senate hearing was followed by a marathon grilling of Jack Dorsey by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Much of the House hearing was taken up with largely specious allegations of bias against conservatives by Republican lawmakers, who have spun a narrative of censorship out of very thin gruel.

The ultimate winner of the day was probably Dorsey, who kept his patience while being asked to answer the same questions over and over again, and managed to deliver a consistent message about working to improve Twitter without falling into any obvious political potholes.

Long is now discussing the tweets that get sent to him by email from Twitter. He was sent “highlights” emails of tweets, and he is reading the names of the accounts whose tweets are included. They are mostly political reporters.

I think the implication here is that there aren’t enough Republicans included.

“They’re all pretty much Trump bashing,” he says.

Dorsey: It doesn’t sound like we served you well in matching your interests.